This invention relates to systems and methods for streamlining collaborative processes, and more particularly, this invention relates to a collaborative commerce application that may be used for collaboratively designing, constructing, and maintaining fluid processing plants.
Engineering of, material procurement for, and construction of fluid processing plants has a long, complex design-build cycle. Furthermore, once construction is complete, material procurement for plant maintenance, such as replacing a worn-out heat exchanger bundle or upgrading a processing vessel, is often a cumbersome, error-prone process.
Almost all facets of fluid processing plants, ranging from designing a fluid processing plant, to constructing a fluid processing plant, to maintaining a fluid processing plant involve a complex mesh of procedures, specialists, and materials. The complexity of engineering information associated with fluid processing plants makes clear, accurate communication difficult. Because large numbers of people from different organizations are involved (e.g., the owner company customer, the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor, and the many vendors, fabricators and manufacturers), and because many of them manipulate the data during the design, build, or fabrication phases, errors are very likely.
The pressure to deliver on schedule, and to eliminate as many errors as possible, makes the bidding process slow and tentative. The engineering media used, such as data sheets, specifications, and two-dimensional computer aided design (CAD) drawings, are fundamentally clumsy and hard to distribute to remote locations. They must be reproduced and mailed—a process that consumes valuable time.
Version control presents another source of inefficiency. For example, much confusion typically arises when multiple engineering groups, for example, at remote locations attempt to coordinate reviewing and editing a set of drawings. Often times, there is an inconsistency with regard to the versions being worked on by the different engineering groups.
During the engineering of, material procurement for, and construction of a fluid processing plant, a tremendous amount of equipment information is developed. However, this information is often too difficult to access to be of much benefit to the engineers and mechanics who later operate and maintain the plant.
Two trends in the industry have exacerbated these problems. One of these trends is globalization. For example, it is not unusual to do engineering in India and vessel fabrication in Korea for a fluid processing plant in France that is being built or upgraded for a customer in Houston. The long distances between sites add to communication difficulty.
The second trend is an increasing use of three-dimensional CAD models. These models allow engineers to build a plant electronically before building it in the field in order to see connection points, test clearances, and check for human ergonomic factors early in the design process. As a result, the models help eliminate unwanted changes later in the detailed engineering and construction process. Yet mistakes still happen, and they often do not become obvious until late in the cycle, when the cost of fixing them undercuts any efficiencies gained earlier in the process.
In addition, three-dimensional CAD modeling systems do little to make design review and procurement easier. It takes an expensive, sophisticated workstation to view a plant model. The models are so large that e-mailing them from place to place is prohibitively time-consuming, even with high-speed Intranet or Internet access. If the model is shipped on a large capacity disk or if file transfer protocol (FTP) is used, the recipient can view it only with a tool that uses the same proprietary software platform on which the three-dimensional model was created. Often, if the recipient does not have access to the proprietary platform, the recipient is required to make the investment necessary to obtain the platform.
Security is a source of problems with regard to complicated design models that go through several stages of revision. Once the entity that has developed the model releases it, parties that do not necessarily require access have access to the entire body of data.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a way in which the design, construction, and maintenance of fluid processing plants may be made more efficient by removing major sources of error and allowing for easier collaboration.